By
Bill Phanco: WBO super bantamweight champion Nonito Donaire (30-1, 19 KO’s) faces Jorge Arce (61-6-2, 46 KO’s) in a fight on Saturday night on December 15th at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas. The fight will be televised by HBO, and it’s bout that a lot of Donaire’s Filipino fans and Arce’s Mexican fans are really interested in seeing. Arce’s fans think he has a real chance of winning this fight, but neutral boxing fans aren’t giving Arce much of any chance at all.
They see him as a small fighter whose best weight was light flyweight now fighting well above his best weight in going after better paydays at super bantamweight. Arce is kind of like Vic Darchinyan in that respect. Both Darchinyan and Arce were dominant at flyweight but now aren’t the same fighters after moving up to super bantamweight.
Donaire has got the height, reach, youth, and speed and power advantage over Arce. The only thing that Arce has going for him is experience and heart. Can that get him past a fighter as good as Donaire on Saturday? I’d say probably not. Theirs is a chance but it’s probably very slight.
continue